I'll take door #3

Now, if door #1 had been a weekend in New York with Hillary...

from the inbox...

Dear [hipparchia],

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that today is election day.

You're not gonna want to tell people in 10 years that you don't remember what you did today, so if you're able to vote in this election and still don't know where to cast you vote, you just lost your best excuse for not doing so:

http://www.voteforchange.com

You can also test your prognostication ability against the pundits by entering our election prediction sweepstakes:

• First prize: one month's worth of FDL Book Salon titles.
• Second prize: a package of books, CDs and DVDs courtesy of Blue America
• Third prize: FDL t-shirt and mug, plus two tickets to the Inauguration special performance of "Wake Up World"

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/sweepstakes

I'll be on GritTV with Laura Flanders at noon ET. Watch live on firedoglake.com and call in toll-free at 866-466-2961 and let us know what you're thinking.

And I'll also be on BBC World News all night until the bitter end, hopefully trying to figure out how to make House and Senate races interesting to an international audience.

If you're already voted, pat yourself on the back -- and take someone you love to the polls!

Cheers,

Jane Hamsher

Jane asks us to take someone we love to the polls. I went one better [or worse] -- I rode with my neighbor, who is new in town and didn't know where to go, to our polling place. On the way there we argued politics, but neither of us convinced the other, and we ended up effectively canceling out each other's vote. At least we agreed on one thing -- VOTE! [how I voted]

Such is the nature of politics and friendships.

North Carolina -- almost blue

CNN's Battleground States map shows NC with 92% of precincts reporting and McCain ahead by only 2702 votes, out of a total of 3.9 million votes [shortly after 10:00pm CST].

A squeaker.





Oh, and 2 other notes, neither of which is likely to be useful --

Florida is 51% Obama, 49% McCain, or about 160,000 votes ahead, with 86% of precincts reporting. NB, later-reporting precincts here tend to be in the red parts of the state.

CNN appears to have called Ohio for Obama, a flip from red to blue for the Buckeye State if true. I can't remember the site where I saw the information, but whoever has won Ohio in the past 10Presidential elections has won the whole kit and caboodle. But probably it's safer to rely on your magic 8-ball for prognostication.

REMEMBER TO VOTE !!!

more animals

$2.17

First time in several weeks that I've filled the tank all the way from E to F in one swell foop. Had to wait in line to do it too.

Long line in front of the library for the last day of early voting [I'm still waiting till the 11th hour of Election Day myself] , and I decided to treat myself to a chocolate milkshake while I was out running errands -- long line at McDonald's and I waited at the window forever before they finally decided they couldn't get the milkshake machine working after all.

I don't mind the gas prices so much, I'm a treehugger anyway and think we all ought to drive less than we do. What I really need, though, is for my food prices to go back down, or for my income to go up.

Oh, and health care would be nice to have too. Yo, Massachusettsians! I understand [some of? all of?] you have a chance to vote for a ballot initiative for a state-wide single-payer system. Far be it from me to tell y'all how to run your own state [vote YES!] but hey, how's that RomneyCare been working out for ya?

Veterans for Obama

I was a bit hasty in assuming that the Obama campaign hadn't given out [sold?] Veterans for Obama signs -- I saw a few while I was driving around town this morning.

An informal poll, of sorts

Florida has early voting [I'm waiting until The Day] and the lines have been long whenever I drive by this past week. The lines are never long in my precinct, and I just plain like my polling place.

So, apropos of not much, I decided to drive around a few neighborhoods and [sort of] count campaign signs.

My immediate neighborhood, mostly white, is more or less working, with small pockets of solidly middle class -- McCain/Palin signs outnumber the Obama08 signs, maybe 3:1.

My former neighborhood, approximately the same economic range but about 50/50 black/white has almost no signs, but I did see a few Obama bumper stickers.

The slightly more prosperous neighborhoods around me, solidly middle class and up to the lower tier of upper middle class, again mostly white, have more Obama08 signs, about 2:1.

The definitely ritzy-schnortzy upper middle class would-be-gated-if-it-could-be-gated neighborhood just up the street is ALL white and has ALL McCain/Palin signs.

One of the poorest neighborhoods in town, almost all black, has few signs, but none of them were for McCain.

One of the poorest neighborhoods out in the county, also mostly black, has very few signs, but none of them were for McCain either.

Lots of active-duty and retired military here, but not a lot of Veterans For McCain signs. I wonder what the place would have looked like if the Obama campaign had given out Veterans for Obama signs.

Sarah Palin stopped by here a few days ago; reportedly 10,000 people from 4 counties showed up and fell in love with her.


Lots and lots and lots of signs for local elections, which is heartening, but an awful lot of them are for Republicans, which isn't a huge surprise. This place has long been of the Blue Dog and Dixiecrat stripe, so when Newt Gingrich invited them to turn Republican, they did.

It's McCain by a whisker -- so far

in Florida, as of yesterday, but my dad, who is sometimes right about these things, thinks that Colin Powell's endorsement will reverse that and give Obama the lead by Election Day.

Manchurian candidate?

It would be irresponsible of me not to speculate, but... John McCain [hearts] the Kremlin?

Over the course of the presidential campaign, John McCain has repeatedly emphasized his willingness to stand up to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as proof that only he possesses the fortitude and judgment to become the next leader of the free world. In his acceptance speech at the Republican convention, McCain lashed out at Putin and the Russian oligarchs, who, "rich with oil wealth and corrupt with power...[are] reassembling the old Russian Empire." McCain rushed to publicly support the Georgian republic during its recent conflict with Russia and amplified his threat to expel Moscow from the G-8 club of major powers. His running mate, Sarah Palin, suggested in her first major interview that the United States might have to go to war with Russia one day in order to protect Georgia--the kind of apocalyptic scenario the United States avoided during the cold war.

Yet despite McCain's tough talk, behind the scenes his top advisers have cultivated deep ties with Russia's oligarchy--indeed, they have promoted the Kremlin's geopolitical and economic interests, as well as some of its most unsavory business figures, through greedy cynicism and geopolitical stupor. The most notable example is the tale of how McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, advanced what became a key victory for the Kremlin: gaining control over the small but strategically important country of Montenegro.

According to two former senior US diplomats who served in the Balkans, Davis and his lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, received several million dollars to help run Montenegro's independence referendum campaign of 2006. The terms of the agreement were never disclosed to the public, but top Montenegrin officials told the US diplomats that Davis's work was underwritten by powerful Russian business interests connected to the Kremlin and operating in Montenegro.

Because anybody who is NOT Jeff Miller needs to be heard

Jim Bryan is the Democratic candidate running for Congress in Florida's District 01 [the panhandle, more or less]. His next two appearances will be in Chipley on Sept 24 and in Pensacola on Oct 1.

PRESS RELEASE For immediate release Monday, September 22, 2008 From James E. “Jim” Bryan CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE JIM BRYAN TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE IN CHIPLEY WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1:00PM, IN FRONT OF THE WASHINGTON COUNTY NEWS, 1364 N. RAILROAD AVE, CHIPLEY, FL, 32428 Speaking in Chipley, in a small county at the eastern end of a District 140 miles wide, emphasizes my determination to represent every last person in District 1. I want to get my message out to the press, and will also answer questions from anyone present. My next press conference will be in Pensacola, Wednesday October 1, place to be announced. But this won’t be the last time I speak to the press in the eastern part of Congressional District 1. My main subject will be the economy of the Panhandle. In Congress, I will be a strong advocate for agriculture and manufacturing -- using (and protecting) our many natural resources, our robust transportation net of truck, rail, waterway and air, and not least, the vigor and work ethic of our work force. My hero is Democratic Congressman Bob Sikes, from Crestview, who represented District 1 from 1940 to 1972. “Uncle Bob,” as he was known to the voters, brought jobs and prosperity to the Panhandle. Like him, I will spend every minute I can with the voters; because I think knowing the needs of the District 1 will make me more effective than hobnobbing around Washington. I will also speak to the weak record of the incumbent Congressman, Jeff Miller. His main qualification, according to his web site, is that he is a conservative Republican in an area that always votes Republican. I think the welfare of America and my District are more important than party loyalty. Being a “conservative Republican” has not made Mr. Miller effective. According to the “Power Ranking” evaluation at www.congress.org, by a company (look it up) that serves professionals in government relations and even lobbyists; Mr. Miller ranks No. 412 of the 435 members of the US House of Representatives. He also ranks No. 24 (of 25) in the Florida delegation to the House. Mr. Miller’s personal score is 5.6. To compare, 50 is a representative effective score in either House or Senate. (Very top scores for leaders are about 100,) The bottom is about zero (think William Jefferson, D-LA and Rick Renzi, R-AZ, both under indictment).

Mississippi mudcake

Lots of good things have come out of Mississippi [hard to believe, I know], including this little soap opera. An illegal ballot design so you can't find the special senate race, leaving off the party designations so you can't tell which is the D and which is the R if you do find it, and moving the date of the special election to favor Republican turnout.

Kewl.


Update: the sample ballot, see if you can spot the Democrat. But hey, it's not going to matter anyway --

None of the 82 counties have published their ballots, Hosemann said Friday. Only three counties - DeSoto, Lee and Yalobusha - use voting machines with paper ballots. The other 79 counties use electronic machines.

"I'll take the insatiable lovers

over the puritanical warmongers any day."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Remember Obama points?

Now you can get McCain points.

PUMAs are

Or not. I link, you decide.






additional reference


update: post title edited, h/t michael in comments

update update: post title changed yet again, as steve reminds me that rats are pretty darn kewl ackshully.

It's true, women do get more radical as they get older.

Ok, so I'm just one data point, but when I did this 2 or 3 years ago, my score was, iirc, -6.5, -6.8. Today --



Which leaves me feeling like I'm looking through the wrong end of the telescope --



I dunno, I'm thinkng his latest statement on FISA moves Obama up the authoritarian scale a couple of notches.

minor edit to add additional graphic

Impactful

“All I can say is, the surge is succeeding,” [McCain] said. “If someone wants to disagree with that, they’re free to, but I have statistics — whether they be instances of violence, whether it be U.S. casualties, whatever it may be — that prove that this new tactic is succeeding. So I’m willing to stick with it.”

---

“After nearly four years of a failed strategy, the difference in one year is dramatic,” McCain says. “If they make that same progress in the next year,” he predicts, “I think it’s going to be quite impactful on American public opinion, as well as, more importantly, events on the ground.”

from The McCain Doctrines

Out with the old: yellowdog democrats

In with the new: black-white-and-tan-dog democrats

I admit, that's a ticket I'd have a hard time resisting, on a couple of levels.

Just who the hell is Julie Bosman, anyway?

Good question.

Until a few minutes ago, I thought she was just the hack who cobbled together this vapid and venal piece in the NYT:

JUNCTION CITY, Ore. — On the day Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was endorsed by the governor of North Carolina, a supporter gave her a three-foot-long balloon replica of herself, complete with blond hair, black pantsuit and wide pink smile, which Mrs. Clinton promptly took on her plane and laughingly showed off to reporters.

On Thursday, little more than two weeks later, the doll lay on the sofa by her seat on the plane, shriveled and deflated.

Barf.

But there's more to the story. Turns out she's an Evil Troll.

Dear MSM:

Your coverage of the Presidential candidates has been erratic and irresponsible



and we wish like hell that you'd STFU about that WWTSBQ? already



but this is absolutely criminal



1% of the recent news coverage has been about the war? One percent?!

Every last one of you should be thrown into rat-infested dungeons and fed a diet of moldy bread and stagnant pond water.